Huge news!!!
Finally! The first university professor has publicly stood up against the undemocratic and uneducational leadership of Israel’s university system, which has been forcing professors and staff to join in political protests under the guise of “defending democracy.” The dam is breaking!
Professor Binyamin Brown from the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has refused to comply with the administration’s attempt to dictate his political views. He boldly declared that if a strike is declared over the dismissal of the Attorney General or the head of the Shin Bet, he will continue teaching as usual, because universities should be about education, not indoctrination.
“In recent months, like all of us, I have been receiving almost weekly indoctrination messages attempting to tell me what to think,” Brown wrote to his colleagues. “I’m a grown adult and can think for myself, but as long as it was just words, it bothered me less. Your latest message, however, is now crossing into action, which is much more concerning, and that is where I must respond.”
“No president, rector, dean, faculty head, or any other figure can force me to think like them, let alone fight their battles for them when I do not share their positions. It is time for you to understand that employees are not slaves, and professors are not vassals who must fight for their masters at the top. Faculty members fight for principles they believe in—only those.
“A faculty union has the right to call for a professional strike—not a political or ideological one, even if its leaders believe it is a fight ‘for the soul of the country’ or ‘for Israeli democracy.’
We may have different views on Israeli democracy and its challenges, but even those who think differently must recognize that you cannot claim to fight for democracy while trampling one of its most fundamental values—freedom of conscience.
Not only governments must uphold freedom of conscience—so must faculty organizations and university administrators.”
“Therefore, if an illegal strike is declared, I willhold my classes as usual and inform students that the material is required for their exams.”
This is a HUGE moment.
For too long, Israeli academia has been a leftist dictatorship, where professors were afraid to speak up against the radical forces hijacking their institutions, and endangering their path to tenure. But no more. The first professor has broken the silence, and hopefully, others will follow. This is another part of the battle against the deep state!
The fight for Israel’s democracy isn’t happening in the streets—it’s happening in our classrooms, in our media, and in our legal system, where the deep state has controlled the narrative for decades.
But the truth is breaking through. The people of Israel are waking up.
Share this far and wide! The fight for real democracy has begun!